Mr. Costeau, one of our brothers in Spiritism, has just died. He was inhumed on September 12th last at Montmartre cemetery. He was a good man led back to God by Spiritism. Hehad a total, sincere and profound faith in the future. He was was a simple worker who practiced charity in his thoughts, words and actions according to the his scarce resources. He always found ways of helping those who were less fortunate.
It would be a mistake to believe that the Parisian Society is an exclusively aristocratic gathering because it counts on more than one working class person; it welcomes every devotion to its cause be it from the highest or the lowest social echelon; the aristocrat and the artisan are fraternally hand in hand there.
Sometime ago, at the wedding of one of our colleagues, who was also a modest worker, there was a high ranking foreign dignitary with his wife, a princess, both members of the Society that did not feel diminished for seating side-by-side with other guests although the ceremony celebrated in an obscure chapel had luxury reduced to its simplest expression. The fact is is that Spiritism does not segregate based on class or pretend to try and move everybody to the same impossible social level, Spiritism makes people appreciate from a different stand point the fascinating prism of the world. It teaches that the little one may have been great on Earth; that the great may become little and that in the celestial kingdom earthlsy classes are not taken into account. That is how it leads to true fraternity by logically destroying the social prejudices of cast and color. Our brother Costeau was poor and leaves behind a widow in need. Hence he was taken to a common ditch, a door that leads to heavens as much as the sumptuous mausoleum.
Mr. d’Ambel, vice president, and Mr. Canu, Society secretary, led the burial. One and the other gave speeches at the tomb that caused marked impression in the auditorium and among the gravediggers who were visibly touched although insensible to such ceremonies. Here is Mr. Canu’s eulogy:
“Dear brother Costeau! Just a few years ago many among us, and I confess I was the first one, would not have seen anything in this grave but the end of human miseries and after that the void, that is, nothing for the soul to deserve or atone and consequently nothing for God to reward, punish or forgive. Today, thanks to our divine doctrine, we see here the end of our trials and to you, dear brother whose remains we return to Earth, the triumph in our works and the beginning of the deserved reward to your courage, resignation and charity, in one word, your virtues and above all, the glorification of a wise, powerful, just and benevolent God. Hence, dear brother, take our thanksgivings to the feet of the Eternal who wanted to dissipate from around us the darkness of error and disbelief because not long ago we would have told you with a warm forehead and a discouraged hearth: Good by forever friend. Today we say with our heads up and radiating hope and with our hearts full of courage and love: So long, dear friend and pray for us.”
Mr. d’Ambel’s eulogy:
“Ladies and gentlemen, and you, dear colleagues of the Parisian Society, this is the second time that we lead a colleague to his last dwelling. The one that we came to say farewell to he was one of those obscure fighters that the difficulties of life always found unbreakable; the absolute certainty, however, had failed him long ago. Thus, as soon as he got to know Spiritism he was fast to embrace a doctrine that brought him the truth and whose teachings reassure the afflicted of this world in their trials.
Modest worker, he always accomplished his tasks with the serenity of the just and the adversity that hurt him so badly in his last days, for our sorrow, also opened up for him, rest assured all of you who hear me, a next career of prosperity and venture.
Ah! I am so sorry for not having our venerable master in Paris! His authoritative voice would please our brother much more than mine and he would have paid a more considerable tribute than I can in my insignificance. I wanted to give a better solemnity to our colleague but I was informed too late in order to be able to communicate with all members of the Society that were in Paris. However, irrespective of the small number present here we represent the Spiritist family united by a common faith in the future from one end to the next. We are the delegates of many millions of followers in whose name, dear and missing colleague, we come to ask you to contribute to the propagation of our great doctrine, to the limit of your new abilities, a doctrine that supported you so strongly amidst your last cruel trials.
Ah! As so eloquently our dear president Allan Kardec said at the burial of our brother Sanson, before such a supreme time the Spiritist faith gives a strength that only those who carry that can realize and Mr. Costeau had that faith at the highest level.
Dear Mr. Costeau, be assured that the Parisian Society of Spiritist Studies had you in high regardf. You will always be remembered as one of the most diligent members. It is in the name of the Society, in the name of its president, in the name of your devastated wife and sister that I come to tell you, as our friend Mr. Canu said, not a good-bye, but so long in a happier world. May you be able to enjoy the happiness that you deserve there; may you come to reach out to us when our time to be there comes.
I beg the Spirits of Mr. Jobard and Mr. Sanson to welcome our colleague Mr. Costeau and facilitate his access to your serene regions.
Dear Spirits, pray for him. Pray for us. So be it.”
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After this eulogy Mr. d’Ambel textually read the prayers for those who have just died that was dictated at the tomb of Mr. Sanson (Spiritist Review, May 1862).
Mr. Vézy, one of the mediums of the Society, a well-known name by our readers for the beautiful communications of St. Augustine, stepped down into the ditch and Mr. d’Ambel evoked Mr. Costeau out loud who then gave the following communication through Mr. Vézy, a communication read to all those present and that was heard by all with their bare heads and profound emotion, including the gravediggers. In fact, hearing the words of a dead person inside the grave was a new and touching spectacle.
“Thank you friends, thank you. My tomb is not sealed yet and nonetheless the earth will momentarily cover my remains. But you know that, my soul will not be buried by this dust. It will float in space towards God.
Thus, how reassuring it is to say despite the annihilated envelope: Oh No! I am not dead! I live the true life, the eternal life!
The funeral of the poor is not followed by the crowd. Proud manifestations don’t take place at the tomb and despite that, friends, believe me there is no lack of immense multitude here and good Spirits followed with you and with the heartful women the body that lies here! At least all of you believe and love the good God.
Oh! Dear wife, we certainly do not die because our body is broken! From now on I will always be with you to help you and reassure you in order to withstand your trial. Life will be tough to you but the idea of eternity and the love of God fulfilling your heart will lessen your sufferings!
Relatives that embrace my dear companion, love and respect her; be her brothers and sisters. Do not forget that you must assist one another on Earth if you want the eternal rest of the Lord.
And you, Spiritist brothers and friends! Thank you coming to say good-bye to me at this dwelling of dust and mud. But you do know well that my soul lives immortal and that my soul will sometimes ask for your prayers that I will not refuse, helping me in this magnificent path that you have opened to me when I was alive.
Good-bye to those who are here. We may see one another beyond this grave. The souls call me.
Good-bye. Pray for those in suffering. So long.
Costeau”
After the final arrangements of the funeral those gentlemen payed a Spiritist visit to the tomb of Georges, at the same cemetery, the eminent Spirit that gave beautiful communications through Mrs. Costel and that were eventually admired by our readers. Mr. Georges was Mr. d’Ambel’s brother-in-law. Through Mr. Vézy they collected the following words:
“Although we don’t live here (the burial place), we like to come here to thank you for your prayers in our favor and for the flowers that you lay on our tombs. It is so good that they created these places of rest and prayer! The souls can talk more at will and out of these intimate impulses they can better exchange feelings: one by the tomb, the other above it!
You have just said farewell to one of your friends; I thank you for not having forgotten me. I was with you in that crowd of Spirits that elbowed one another by the freshly opened grave and I felt happy for reading conviction and faith in your hearts. I mixed my prayers with yours and the blessed Spirits carried it to God! My good friends the Spiritist faith will travel around the world and will finally convert the confused ones into wise people. It will even penetrate the hearts of priests like the ones you have just saw smiling causing you a real pain (reference to the kind of religious ceremony that took place). Their scandalization makes your heart bleed but you overcome that by thinking in the good you were doing to your friend. He is here by my side asking me to thank you in his name.
You have already been told that the tomb is life. Come sometimes by the shade of the willow, by the foot of the mortuary cross, in calmness and silence, and you will hear a divine harmony; the breeze will allow you to hear the concert of our souls, singing God… eternity… Then some of us will stick out from the sacred chorus to come and instruct you about your destinies. What was a mystery to you up until now will gradually unveil before your eyes and you will be able to understand your beginning and your future greatness.
Then you will have a meeting here with those whom you wish to learn. Here you will read the pages of eternity and the book of life will be always open to you. In this place of peace and calm the voice of the Spirit seems to be better heard by the one who wishes to learn; it takes magical and sound proportions and its accents penetrate even more the one that it intends to achieve.
Work with fervor and zeal for the propagation of the new idea. I will help you tirelessly and if the tranquility of the grave scare some they should know that the Spirits happily instruct everywhere. Good-bye and thank you! I wish I could transmit to the whole world the faith that fulfills you! I truly say, though, that Spiritism is the lever with which Archimedes will move the world!
A few words in particular to you, my brother, since the occasion is proper. Tell me sister that she must always love the God imposed duties however heavy they may be. Tell her to love our mother and to replace me by her side. Tell her to take care of my daughter, to smile to the skies and find perfume in all flowers of Earth…
As for you, my brother, I have both of your hands in mine.
Georges.”
Double teaching sticks out from the above. It could cause surprise the fact that a Spirit that died so recently could communicate with such clarity but one must remember that Mr. Sanson was evoked at the mortuary chapel before the body was carried away and that he gave a beautiful communication at that time and that everyone was able to read in the Spiritist Review. His mental confusion had lasted only a few hours as in fact it is known that the detachment is fast for the morally advanced Spirits.
On another hand why has Mr. Vézy stepped foot into the grave? Was there a utility for that or was it all just a scene? Let us promptly reject the second motive since serious Spiritists act serious and religiously and make no scenes. At that occasion it would have been a profanation.
Certainly the utility was not absolute. There must be a more special testimony of sympathy particularly considering that the dead was buried in a common ditch. As a matter of fact access to those ditches is easier than to the private ones whose entry is narrow; Mr. Vézy was more comfortable to write there. However, from another point of view this could have had a reason that probably was not in Mr. Vézy’s mind. It is a known fact that the evocation facilitates the separation of the Spirit from the body and may shorten the time of mental confusion. It is also known that the links that connect the Spirit to the body are not always entirely broken just after death. Here a remarkable example: A young man had had a horrible sudden death. He had, like many rich young men, a lighthearted life, that is totally bounded to matter. He spontaneously communicated with an acquainted medium of ours that knew him in life, asking to have him evoked and for prayers by his grave to help him break the links that he had with the body from which he was unable to separate. There must certainly be a magnetic action facilitated by proximity of the body and there may perhaps be one of the causes that instinctively lead friends of the dead to go to the place where the body is located.
